Jonathan Aitken

Jonathan Aitken is a writer and broadcaster and the director of the Trinity Forum in Europe.

He is the author of several books, including John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (2007); Nixon: A Life (1993); Pride and Perjury (2000); Psalms for People Under Pressure (2004); and Charles W Colson: A Life Redeemed (2005).

He is also a well-known lecturer and public speaker. Active in prison ministry and outreach ministry, he travels across the world for Prison Fellowship International and Alpha International. His recent audiences in the USA have included President George W Bush’s staff in the White House, the Harvard Club of New York, the prisoners of Parchman State Penitentiary Mississippi, and Christian congregations in Vermont, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia, Texas, and Washington DC. He has also spoken to large audiences in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and in many European countries.

Jonathan’s previous career spanned the world of journalism, business, Parliament—and prison.

In the 1960s he was a Fleet Street journalist, serving as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Biafra and the Middle East.  He still continues to write articles for a wide range of newspapers and magazines. After journalism he went into business and became chairman of a merchant bank in the City of London.

In 1974 he became a Conservative Member of Parliament spending eighteen years on the backbenches until being appointed Minister of State for Defence in 1992. He joined the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1994.

Having told a lie on oath in a libel action he pleaded guilty to charges of perjury and served an eighteen-month prison sentence. After graduating with Distinction in theology after two years at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, he now speaks and writes extensively on the Christian faith. He is author in residence at St Matthew’s Church Westminster and a director of Prison Fellowship International.